Drinking water quality in rural India: issues and approaches

The Central Water Commission (CWC) in the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) is responsible for regulating the use of surface water for irrigation, industry and drinking water purposes. [...] During the training the testing of these samples link between the sanitary situation around the source and the quality of water is established. [...] The Government of India has launched school water supply, sanitation and hygiene education programme (SSHE) through the Ministry of Rural Development under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply and Swajaldhara Programmes and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan of the Ministry of Human Resource Development which has provisions for setting up schools with facilities for effective water supply and sanitation. [...] Awareness: The user should be made aware of the importance of preventing contamination of water and also of the importance of clean and healthy surroundings near water sources. [...] This calls for a change in the shift among the users that the onus of maintaining a water source rests with the people and the communities as they are the owners of the system and are most likely to be impacted in case of the degradation of the water supply system.